“We get good results with it,” hygienist JaNaye Dressler said. “We don’t use the light, because we found that it wasn’t that effective.”

Delano Dental also uses Zoom whitening, which is best recognized for its use on ABC’s Extreme Makeover.

“That’s the Cadillac,” Nelson said, adding that teeth can sometimes get five to seven shades lighter.

The “whitening for life” program, open to new patients who sign up for a checkup every six months, is also popular at Delano Dental. At each visit, patients receive a complementary tube of whitening gel, which is used at home with a custom-fit tray.

Whitening strips (such as professional strength Crest Whitestrips) are another option available from many local dentists, including Winsted Gentle Dental.

“You’re supposed to do it when you don’t need to be talking a lot, such as watching TV or reading a book, or getting ready in the morning,” Dressler said.

Similar strips are also available at stores. Lester Prairie resident Sarah Mathews, for example, started using Crest Whitestrips about five years ago.

“The new ones are a lot better than when they first came out,” she said. “They still worked; they just slipped around more.”

The box directions say to use one strip each day for a month, but Mathews said she prefers to just use one strip whenever it’s needed.

“You can tell if you haven’t done it in awhile,” she said.

People who are having cosmetic dental work often chose to whiten teeth beforehand, so that everything matches with their new whiter color.

“Everybody is really white now,” Dressler said. “We have to order lighter colors than in the past for filings and crowns. I always tell people that tooth color should match the whites of your eyes, in order to look natural.”

It is possible to over-whiten, according to Roxanne.

“Then, you get a grey-bluish color to your teeth,” she said, adding that dental offices monitor the color to ensure that doesn’t happen to their patients.

The whiteness of people’s teeth varies, depending on factors such as age, diet, and genetics.

“In reality, not everyone’s teeth are the same,” Roxanne said.

People who smoke, or drink dark liquids (like coffee, tea, and red wine) are more likely to have darker teeth.

As for the safety of whitening products, Nelson said dentists would have stopped using them years ago if they were harmful.